Wilmington, North Carolina- Almost rancid with the sense of déjà vu is the fact that another police department has targeted Pure Bliss owner Greg Sakas.

You might call it one more fine example of tax payer dollars at work in this country, but a realist would could it an atrocious waste of time and resources when 11 cops showed up at Sakas’ Wilmington store Monday morning. And they weren’t collecting for Jerry’s Kids.

If there was someone being axe murdered, bludgeoned to medium rare ground beef or sodomized in Wilmington at that moment, they were shit out of luck.

You might ask, was there a crime being committed? Of course not. It was the cops merely out for blood sport. That’s because Sakas had made their brethren in blue look pretty silly in another part of the state when Christian Coalition lackey Frank Palumbo, who wears a chief of police badge but owes it all to the bible thumpers, targeted Sakas for harassment in New Bern.

It took 18 months of pig headed bureaucracy straight out of a Kafka novel as interpreted by the Three Stooges for a judge to finally toss that feeble excuse for a case out on its ear, and, figuratively, but not literally, push Palumbo’s nose into his own poop.

So the cops figured, hell, we’ll get Sakas in another jurisdiction. If at first you don’t succeed and all that. Of course you could argue for coincidence, that neither case was related, but you’d be arguing like an idiot.

And so, the Wilmington cops, armed with a warrant, jackboots and those glazed might makes right looks which the Gestapo trademarked for licensing, came into Sakas store at about 11 am ET. They basically told Sakas they were going to pull an all-nighter if needs be.

With no evidence to suggest- at least for the moment- that there were any illegalities going on, there were no arrests. But there was a concerted effort to tie Sakas’ commerce up for the day. After all, who in their right minds comes into a store with 11 cops giving you the hairy eyeball. The cops, according to them, were there to inventory every single item including movies and sex toys. It would also take the same fool to suggest otherwise, but they were obviously bound and determined to prove that Sakas had violated some obscure preponderance law.

Which basically means that Sakas might, or could be found guilty of carrying, proportionately, more adult product than mainstream items, depending who’s doing the counting. Obviously Sakas, the Al Capone of Wilmington, is a big fish worthy of the presence of 11 cops and 3 state code enforcement people.

But you got to figure with 14 municipal hacks at the poker table and on a city time clock at that, when it comes to the count, someone’s going to be dealing from the bottom of the deck, eventually.

Just look what happened in New Bern. Try as they might, Palombo’s Keystone cops couldn’t make a case stick with duct tape, Bondo and Super Glue. Perhaps their buddies could do it here. But only with enough cheating. And you say this because Sakas is obviously no moron to be screwing up on preponderance tests, particularly after that New Bern fiasco.

Only the Wilmington police may have been ignoring this obvious fact for the greater safety of its citizenry. And who can blame them. After all, an extra dildo weighed on the scales of justices has been proven deadly and extremely dangerous.

Sakas’s attorneys have told him to shut his yap. Which, once you’ve gotten to know Sakas, you realize is impossible. That’s because Sakas is kind of like the Dixon line Skeeter Kerkove of adult store owners- with a zest for the harangue, the political speech and an uncommon ability to deliver them with a southern drawl that takes no prisoners.

Perhaps rightly so in Sakas’ case, because this is essentially a guy who up until a year and a half ago was minding his own peace-loving business until the Coalition guys elected to fuck with him.

Is this another version of Walking Tall complete with rednecks and a deplorable sense of right and wrong? You betcha. In Act 3 you’re almost waiting for Sakas to roll up his sleeves like Buford Pusser and go to town with a baseball bat.

As of Monday night, Sakas had delivered a cease and desist letter from his attorney which the cops basically sneered at and ignored. The enforcement officer in charge refused to accept the letter, sign off on it and vacate the premises. Sakas was then threatened with an arrest, claiming that he was impeding an investigation. Sakas was told the cops could stay as long as they wanted to. It’s surprising they didn’t have Sakas order out for sandwiches.